Diallo Says Passport Revocation Blocked Journey to UN Meetings

Guinean opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo says he was prevented from travelling from Abidjan to New York after his passport was revoked.

Diallo said on Tuesday that he had been due to attend meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The specific meetings were not identified.

The Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) said Diallo had already received a boarding pass for the flight from Abidjan. According to the party, Ethiopian Airlines then informed him that the passport had been cancelled by the issuing authorities and that the airline was not authorised to let him board.

The account has been attributed to Diallo and the UFDG. No response from Ethiopian Airlines or Guinean authorities was provided, and the identities of the alleged issuing authorities were not specified.

Opposition leader in exile

Diallo has lived in exile since 2022. His travel difficulty comes amid continued restrictions on political activity in Guinea under President Mamady Doumbouya.

The UFDG was dissolved in March by Doumbouya, along with several other major opposition parties. Diallo and other leading opposition figures were also barred from taking part in contested presidential polls held in December last year.

Doumbouya came to power in a 2021 coup that removed Alpha Conde, Guinea’s first freely elected president. He later won a seven-year presidential term in the contested polls, according to the source report.

Demonstrations have been banned under Doumbouya’s rule, while many dissenting voices have been arrested, convicted, forced into exile or reported to have disappeared.

After political parties were banned, Diallo called on Guineans to engage in “direct resistance” and said political change would not come through dialogue or democratic processes.

The exact date of the attempted flight and the reason for the alleged passport revocation were not provided.